Recap of Blues win over the Ducks and some good NCAA stories

The Blues will be coming off their week plus long break tomorrow. Before we move on to the upcoming game, let’s revisit how they ending the pre-all-star game schedule.

The Blues started the game in Anaheim, dominating the Ducks, outshooting them 8-0 before giving up a goal to Daniel Sprong on just their 1st shot of the game over six and a half minutes into the game.

The Blues rebounded nicely with Vladimir Tarasenko tying the game less than four minute later. The key to the play was a strong forecheck play by Ryan O’Reilly.

The forecheck allows Braden Schenn to take the puck and feed Tarasenko.

The Blues outshot the Ducks 13 to 2 to end the 1st period. They took the lead just two minutes into the 2nd period by a strong goal from Zach Sanford. Watch how the drive to the net by Oskar Sundqvist draws the defenseman, creating the lane for Sanfrod.

A little over five minutes later, Sundqvist scores an easy goal after ag reat move by Pat Maroon.

The Blues again put up 13 shots, winning the 2nd period shot battle 13 to 7.

The third period only saw ten combined shots with the Blues scoring two goals in less than a minute while only posting 6 shots. Tyler Bozak scored the 1st goal with a lucky bounce off the Ducks player.

Sammy Blais would get the final goal after Carl Gunnarsson makes a strong neutral zone play to spring Mackenzie MacEachern into the offensive zone.

MacEachern then makes a good play finding Blais in the slot.

Blues fans shouldn’t get too excited about the victory as the Ducks have been in a tail spin, only winning 2 of their last 16 games.

Lots of positive NCAA hockey stories lately
There have been a lot of great NCAA hockey stories lately. Here are a few:

NHL Champions for Charity
We’ve gotten some traction on the charity wager among the Central Division bloggers. The third charity I’ll highlight is Best Buddies Tennessee https://www.bestbuddies.org/tennessee/from your Predators’s Blogger Paul McCann. Best Buddies Tennessee is dedicated to establishing a volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a side note, I recently got to experience a Best Buddies even in the St. Louis area that was led by the Eureka high school football team. It was a lot of fun and brought a lot of joy to those involved.